Becky asked about Thursday’s injection “How much more painful then normal?” The needles do not hurt, typically, while being inserted. On the other hand when they do it is more like a bad bee sting without the burning. There have been incidents where it hurt a little more because I had my wife inject into a site reaction; not a good idea! Bottom line is that the pain, at worst, in enough to make me wince. Thursday’s initial needle insertion was very much worse than this, and caused tears to well up from the pain. While a little blood came out when my wife removed the needle, not all that uncommon for me, it was not enough to warrant that amount of pain. A needle that small should never be that bad. Something definitely was very, very wrong to have that much pain from just the needle. (I have rarely had tears come from the injection, just not from the needle)

Injection Burning: I got rid of the burning, from the Rebif, when inserting the needle and during the injection by making sure there is no medication in the needle before it is inserted. Frequently, a drop of medication will come out of the needle as it is being uncapped. Leaving it there will guarantee burning. My wife, or me, almost always wipes the needle with an alcohol pad to make sure no medication got on the outside of the needle. I HIGHLY recommend doing the same with Rebif. Now it can burn after the injection because sometimes a little will come out; and this can burn like hades! I sadly have no recommendations for that.